Work visa delays a bane for foreigners seeking Hong Kong jobs amid Covid-19 pandemic, while national security law dents interest

Recruitment agencies say civil servants’ work-from-home arrangements as city battles third wave of infections the main factor for slowdown in processing

Others point to a general drop in visa applications because of wariness over political instability since last year’s social unrest

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Hong Kong is battling a third wave of Covid-19 infections, and civil servants have resumed work-from-home arrangements. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 1:18pm, 22 Aug 2020Updated: 11:03pm, 22 Aug 2020

When Shannon Dean was offered an English teaching job in Hong Kong, she felt excited to start a new life in the city. Now, however, she says she is stuck in limbo, waiting in Manchester in Britain to see whether her working visa will be approved.

While the 24-year-old was offered the job in May, she had to wait until she got her bachelor’s degree certificate in July before she could go ahead with her visa application. It was submitted on July 20, the same day Hong Kong’s civil servants began working from home amid the third wave of coronavirus infections, and Dean has yet to hear from the Immigration Department regarding her application.

Originally hoping she would be in the city by September, the English learning centre has now pushed her start date to November.

“I don’t know if they have started working on my application. I feel quite nervous … that after waiting all this time my application could get rejected,” she said.

Hong Kong’s economy shrank 9 per cent year on year in the previous quarter. Photo: May Tse

Hong Kong is battling a recent surge in Covid-19 cases, and although the daily infection count has been on a general decline over the past week, the city is deep in recession, with air travel and the tourism industry decimated. The economy shrank 9 per cent for the April-June quarter compared with a year before.

Another impact is that work visas have been severely delayed, with recruitment consultants warning of a huge backlog of cases. While borders remain closed to non-residents, foreign workers can still enter Hong Kong once their work visas are approved, but will need to complete the mandatory 14-day quarantine.